Bridgewater Canal
Template: Infobox River / GKZ_fehlt
The 1761 went into operation in Bridgewater Canal is a Narrowboat Canal in north-west England, connecting the cities Runcorn and Manchester each other. It runs on a level without any lock.
The Barton Aqueduct, which originally led the canal over the River Irwell, was then perceived as a technical wonder of the world. Since 1893, stands in his place the Barton Swing Aqueduct.
Route
The channel was originally set in the Castlefield Basin, where the narrowboats are used as internal cargo ship cleared their specific charge for the city of Manchester. Here since 1804 begins in the north- eastern direction through Manchester City Centre running Rochdale Canal.
From Castlefield the channel leads first 7 km west to Watersmeet Channel crossing. He passed the now disused Hulme - lock that once allowed connection to the river Irwell and the Manchester Ship Canal. A sluice recent at Pomona today joins the Bridgewater Canal to the Manchester Ship Canal.
When Waters Meeting the channel branches. The original channel operates 16 km to the north-west to the village of Worsley and the local coal mine by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, who initiated the construction of the canal that bears his name and financed. On this stretch of canal leads at Eccles also by the Barton Swing Aqueduct over the Manchester Ship Canal. This section of the canal was extended in 1799 to 8 km from Leigh to be connected to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.
From Waters Meeting leads the present main channel and who is actually technically and historically a later extension to the channel section described above, for about 32 km south-west to Runcorn. This section of the canal passes through the towns Sale and Lymm in the center, the city Warrington south and close to the channel crossing at Preston Brook Runcorn via a short branch connects to the Trent - Mersey canal.
The channel ends today in Runcorn Basin. The locks, which once led from there to the River Mersey and later to the Manchester Ship Canal and the local docks were shut down mid-1960s. A private club, the Runcorn Locks Restoration Society, strives for the restoration and reopening of the locks.
History
The Bridgewater Canal is referred to as the first "modern " channel in England, for he was a man-made waterway, the existing watercourses only used for water supply and goal for this not only to a navigable waterway.
The Bridgewater Canal was built, because Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, for an efficient transport route for coal from its coal mines in Worsely sought to Manchester, where the Industrial Revolution for significant changes made . The canal was performed by means of a channel tunnel in the underground coal mine and triggered by the way the problem of mine drainage. The coal had to not be promoted to the surface via a vertical shaft, but could already be loaded into the underground Narrowboats.
The Duke commissioned James Brindley to build the canal, which was able to complete this until 1761. At this time the construction of the canal was considered a great feat of engineering, the Brindley made the most sought after channel construction engineer of his time.
But the Duke of Bridgewater came at his expense. He had invested about £ 200,000 in the sewer and redeemed 80,000 pounds a year from the operation of the channel. This immense economic success led to the so-called canal mania. Through Facilitated transport coal to Manchester and therefore the rising supply price of coal fell within one year after the opening of the channel by three quarters in Manchester.
Within the coal mine itself is still more than 70 km of underground passages were a total of four levels, which were partially interconnected by a boat lift in the form of an inclined elevator. These were traversed with smaller barges that could carry a payload of up to 12 t. 1887, the mine was finally abandoned.
Until about 1975, commercial freight traffic carried on the Bridgewater Canal, since he is the recreational boating with the conceived as a floating holiday modern narrowboats reserved. For this purpose, the Bridgewater Canal forms a substantial portion of the Cheshire ring, a channel circuit through Cheshire.
The Bridgewater is one of the few never nationalized channels. He is still one of the Manchester Ship Canal Company, which in turn also never got into public ownership.
Bibliography
- Hugh McKnight: The Shell Book of Inland Waterways. 2nd edition. David & Charles PLC, 1981, ISBN 978-0715382394.
- Francis Henry Egerton: Description du Plan Incline Basement (Description of the underground hydraulic lift ), online version at Google Books